Changing themes: What WEF talked about in its 52nd conference

The agenda of the World Economic Forum (WEF) over the years has been to discuss global issues and bring leaders of the world to the table for discussions about the future courses of action. However, the WEF has come under attack for being an elite conference that has ignored issues like climate change, and for its overemphasis on growth and development.

While that has changed over the last few years, a dichotomy between what WEF discusses and what the world perceives still exists. A Business Standard analysis finds that while themes in WEF publications had changed little over the last week when the conference was being held, media discussions had pivoted.

For instance, while “save the planet” remained the top topic of discussion in the WEF publications, finding reference in 141 of the 328 articles published last week, media discussions focused on geopolitics.

For the analysis, Business Standard looked at themes in WEF publications and media references using WEF tags over the last two years from the WEFLIVE portal. The portal shows that the WEF agenda has undergone some transformation over the previous two years.

Of the 2,893 articles/reports published by the WEF, 1,356, or 47 per cent, highlighted the theme “save the planet”, while the share of infrastructure resilience went up from 11.8 per cent two years ago to 16.3 per cent last year.

In the previous week, the percentage of articles published with infrastructure resilience as a theme declined to 15.5 per cent. Instead, the share of publications with “beyond geopolitics” as a theme increased from 5.8 per cent to 13.7 per cent.

“Future of the economy” was another hot topic of discussion, with its share increasing from 8.8 per cent a year ago to 10.4 per cent in the last week.

The share of “digital transformation and trust” and “healthy futures” declined. While “healthy futures” accounted for 9 per cent of the discussions two years ago, its share decreased to 8 per cent a year ago, and in the last week, it only found mention in 5.5 per cent of the articles. “Save the planet” was mentioned 43 per cent of the time in WEF publications.

However, media resources which used WEF as a tag chose to follow a different theme over the last week. While “save the planet” was also the top agenda for media articles on WEF discussions two years ago, they only accounted for 30 per cent of total coverage, as against 47 per cent coverage in WEF publications. And the divergence has only increased over the last two years.

Of the 320,689 articles published on various topics, “save the planet” was referenced in 97,123 publications. “Beyond geopolitics” accounted for a 20 per cent share, whereas “healthy futures” and “future of the economy” received 13.8 per cent and 14.5 per cent references, respectively.

In the last week, the shares have reversed. Of the 32,124 articles published in the media, 13,417 (or 41.7 per cent) pertained to the “beyond geopolitics” theme; in contrast, only 22.7 per cent of the articles highlighted “save the planet” as a theme. WEF publications, meanwhile, accorded only a 13.7 per cent share to “beyond geopolitics”.

The share of discussions highlighting “the future of the economy” also rose from 13.6 per cent a year ago to 18.6 per cent in the last week. The share of “healthy futures” declined from 14.6 per cent a year ago to 6.2 per cent in the previous week. An earlier analysis by Business Standard found that the focus of WEF conferences had barely shifted from developed economies. India and China were the only two developing nations to have figured in the top 10 mentions of the Forum and the media, while the US and the UK accounted for the top spots.

The WEF will need to pivot away from its developed-world-focused themes to become more inclusive in the coming years.